Smith v. Gade CA5

INTRODUCTION

Cassidy Jordan Smith appeals the trial court’s entry of summary judgment in favor of Dr. Gopal Reddy Gade. Smith sued Dr. Gade and Clovis Community Hospital and Medical Center (“Clovis Community”) for medical malpractice on July 6, 2017. She alleged the “Defendants” sutured her vagina to her large intestine after the delivery of her first child in November 2015 resulting in a “fistula[1 ] between the two organs.” According to Smith, she defecates from her vagina because of this condition. Dr. Gade moved for summary judgment, in part, on the ground that the one-year limitations period in Code of Civil Procedure section 340.5 2 barred Smith’s claim. The motion included the following evidence: (1) Smith returned to Clovis Community on November 24, 2015, after reporting a bowel movement from her vagina and was diagnosed with rectovaginal fistula; (2) on November 25, 2015, Smith saw another physician (Dr. Black) who declined to perform emergency surgery because she “could not take on another doctor’s mistake”; (3) on December 2, 2015, Smith told a physician assistant she suspected “her OB/GYN was negligent”; and (4) on November 18, 2016, Smith’s attorney sent Dr. Gade a…